Connecticut Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Westervelt

• Decision Date: 10 September 1884
• Citation: 52 Conn. 586
• Court: Connecticut Superior Court
• Parties: The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Susan Westervelt and others.

52 Conn. 586

The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Susan Westervelt and others.

Superior Court of Connecticut.

September 10, 1884

An indorsement of her name in blank by a wife upon a policy of insurance upon the life of her husband taken out for her benefit and payable to her or her assigns, with a delivery of the policy to the husband, to enable him to use it as collateral security in obtaining a loan, will be valid and binding in equity in favor of the party making the loan, and the wife will not be permitted to deny the power of the husband to fill up the assignment.

Where the husband, without the authority or knowledge of the wife filled out the assignment of the policy not merely as security for the proposed loan, but also as security to a creditor for a pre-existing debt, it was held that the wife was not bound by the latter assignment.

The assignment of such a policy by a wife is valid in this state.

By the laws of New York where the husband and wife resided such an assignment was invalid. The policy was issued by an insurance company of this state and the assignment was made in the state of New Jersey, where such assignments were valid. Held that the laws of New York could not operate in the case.

Bill of interpleader; in the Superior Court in Hartford County September Term, 1879.

H C. Robinson, for the plaintiffs.

S Fessenden, for Susan A. Westervelt.

G. G. Sill, for assigns of Susan A. Westervelt.

Hovey J.

The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, by a policy of insurance signed in their behalf by their president and secretary at Hartford in this state, on the 13th day of March, 1860, and countersigned by their agent at New York on the 15th day of the same month, assured the life of Samuel P. Westervelt, then of Morrisiana in the state of New York, for the sole use of his wife, the said Susan Westervelt, in the sum of five thousand dollars, for the whole term of his life, in consideration of the sum of two hundred and fourteen dollars then paid by the said Susan Westervelt and of an annual premium to be paid on or before the 13th day of March in every year while the policy continued. By the terms of the policy the sum insured was made payable to the said Susan Westervelt, her executors, administrators or assigns, for her sole use, within ninety days after due notice and proof of the death of the said Samuel P. Westervelt, after deducting therefrom all notes taken for premiums unpaid at that date. And in case of the death of the said Susan before that of said Samuel, the insurance was made payable to her children or their guardians, if under age, for their use, upon like proofs. The policy was delivered to the assured in the city of New York by the agent of the said company in that city on or about the 15th day of March, 1860. The annual premiums were paid by the said Samuel P. Westervelt until and including the one due on the 13th of March, 1876, and those which were payable on the 13th of March in the years 1877 and 1878 were paid by the said Ralph P. Westervelt.

In the month of June, 1875, the said Samuel P. Westervelt requested the said Susan Westervelt to indorse the said policy of insurance in blank and deliver the same to him, in order that he might use it as collateral security for the payment of a check drawn by the said Ralph P. Westervelt and delivered to him, the said Samuel, and upon which he, the said Samuel, desired to obtain the money at the Fifth National Bank of the city of New York. The said Susan thereupon indorsed her name upon the policy and delivered the policy to the said Samuel P. Westervelt so indorsed. Soon afterwards, that is to say, on or about the 15th day of June, 1875, the said Samuel P. Westervelt purchased, in the name of the said Susan, a farm in Westchester County in the state of New York and took a deed thereof in her name. The consideration stipulated by him to be paid therefor was twelve thousand dollars.

In the latter part of the year 1875, the said Samuel P. Westervelt was indebted to the said Mary H. Westervelt and Anna M. Fenner for money lent in the sum of fourteen hundred dollars; and one thousand dollars, parcel of the consideration stipulated to be paid for said sum, being about to fall due and become payable, he, the said Samuel, applied to the said Mary H. Westervelt and Anna M. Fenner to raise him the sum of three thousand dollars on the security of a second mortgage on certain property in Harlem, New York; but this they refused to do, as the security offered was not satisfactory to them. A few days afterwards he again applied to them through the said Ralph P. Westervelt, to raise him the said sum, offering as security therefor the note of the said Susan Westervelt and an assignment of the said policy of insurance; and they agreed with him that they would raise the money. They accordingly borrowed of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York the said sum of three thousand dollars, and mortgaged their real estate in Patterson, New Jersey, where they resided, to secure its payment; and on the 22d day of January, 1876, at said Patterson, they loaned the said sum to the said Samuel P. Westervelt and received from him at the same place the note of the said Susan of that date for the amount thereof, payable one year after date at the residence of the said Susan in New York city. They also received from the said Samuel, at the same time and place, the said policy of insurance assigned to them and the said Ralph P. Westervelt, in the form set forth in their answer to the present petition. That note was afterwards lost or accidentally destroyed, and the said Susan Westervelt gave a new note of the same tenor, amount, and date, in the place thereof. The said Susan also ratified the assignment of said policy, so far as it purported to be an assignment to the said Mary H. Westervelt and Anna M. Fenner. But she never authorized the assignment of any portion of the said policy or of the sum insured thereby to the said Ralph P. Westervelt, and never ratified the assignment made to him on said policy.

The said ...